62-acre park to open soon in Calverton

Stotzky Park -- a 12-acre green space in the Polish Town area of Riverhead -- has been the pride of the small town's park system for decades, offering just about everything to just about everybody.

The park has a handball court, tennis courts and a playground. While years of hard use have worn it down, Riverhead recently spent more than $300,000 refurbishing it. Nevertheless, it is about to be eclipsed as Riverhead's largest park by a new facility 8 miles away -- a 62-acre town park at the Enterprise Park at Calverton.

EPCAL was originally viewed as a place to meet the future needs of the growing town, but it won't be as grand as originally proposed, before the financial crisis hit and anticipated federal funds for the work vanished. The $5-million project was designed to offer the same kind of services as Stotzky Park for residents in the western part of Riverhead. But night lighting, concession stands, cobblestone walkways and other features have been dropped as the budget was more than halved.

Now, the town sees EPCAL -- near the Brookhaven Town line -- as a place where adult baseball and softball leagues can start playing in the spring, and fields for adult soccer and other team sports will come on line in about a year.

A bike path, which overlaps much of the old security road route at the perimeter of the Calverton field, is still not a complete loop, and there are no immediate plans to spend the money to finish it.

The redesign work has delayed the park opening, as has the lengthy process of getting a permit from the Suffolk County Health Department and acquiring another permit to open the park's main entrance to State Route 25, according to Ray Coyne, Riverhead's superintendent of recreation.

"I'll be happy if it opens in September," he said.

Meanwhile, Stotzky remains the kind of neighborhood park it was originally designed to be, a place in the heart of town, in walking distance for many locals and with three parking lots to serve residents who want to drive there.

"It's a very nice park. All the teams are here in the evenings. . . . It gets a lot of use," said Joe Miceli, who recently walked from his house to the park with his two young grandchildren.

The ballfields at EPCAL are supposed to open at the end of this month.

"It's a little late in the season for baseball, but we'll be ready to go in the spring," said town board member George Gabrielsen.